ANTHR 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Marvin Harris, Sickle-Cell Disease, Milk Allergy
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Variations within a species - blood type, hair texture, eye color, height, weight, milk allergies etc. People with sickle cell anemia are usually people who have descended from areas where malaria is rampant. To equate race is biologically significant is not meaningful from a biological standpoint. Race is a problem for anthropologist b/c its not biological, but people use i. Popular notions of race envision race as occupying sharply bound homelands". But in reality genes are responsible for differences in skin color, hair form, and other traits used to define racial categories that usually occur with gradually increasing or decreasing frequency from one region to another. Such disruptions are called clines. pg 37. Clines result from two evolutionary forces gene flow and selection. One can expect gradual change in gene frequencies as a result from gradual flow of genes through adjacent populations.
